great revolution going on, in India another, in Egypt an- 149
other, in Persia another j there were reflections from one
to another which intensified the piercing gleams $ there
were echoes and reverberations. The vertical life of man
was constantly churned by the revolutions of these great
gleaming wheels of light. Now it. is dark. Nowhere
throughout the greatly enlarged world is there the least
sign or evidence of the turning of a wheel. The last wheel
has fallen apart, the vertical life is done with5 man is
spreading over the face of the earth in every direction
like a fungus growth, blotting out the last' gleams of
1 light, the last hopes.

I went back to my room determined to plunge into
that great unknown tract which we call Crete, anciently
the kingdom of Minos, son of Zeus, whose birthplace it
was. Since the wheel fell apart, before that too no doubt,
every foot of the land has been fought over, conquered
and reconquered, sold, bartered, pawned, auctioned off,
levelled with fire and sword, sacked, plundered, admin-
istered over by tyrants and demons, converted by fanatics
and zealots, betrayed, ransomed, traduced by the great
powers of our day, desolated by civilized and savage
hordes alike, desecrated by all and sundry, hounded to
death like a wounded animal, reduced to terror and idiocy,
left gasping with rage and impotence, shunned by all like
a leper and left to expire in its own dung and ashes. Such
is the cradle of our civilization as it was when finally re-
linquished and bequeathed to its miserable, destitute in-
habitants. What hid been the birthplace of the greatest
of the gods, what had been the cradle and the mother
and the inspiration of the Hellenic wor!4, was finally
annexed and not so long ago made part of Greece. What
a cruel travesty! What a malefic destiny! Here the trav-
eller has to hang his head in shame. This is the Ark left
high and dry by the receding waters of dvilization. This

F*